My son (year 1) has nearly finnished year 2 maths curriculum

[QuintessentialShadow]

A bit of background:
My son (6) is in year one. We are in Norway, where they start school at 6. (Reception year is last year of nursery/preschool) He has a bit of a head start in that he started Reception in London when he was 4.

He spent less than a month on doing year 1 maths curriculum in school. They would not let him take his maths book home as he was so far ahead they wanted to slow him down. First they wouldnt let him continue in it, he had to wait till the class caught up. I complained about this.

Reluctantly they gave him year 2 maths book back at the end of September. They wouldnt send it home with him for homework. I found it by his locker when I went to pick him up today, so brought it home. He has just a few pages left. I asked him if he knew how far ahead his friend (year 2) is, and I was told he was way behind his friend.

I looked through the exercises, they were all correct.

I am not sure what to do. It is only mid november.

So your son is the same age as a yr1 child in Norway but he is a school year ahead? Is that right?

Have they got a maths club he could join or even go into a yr2 maths session just for that topic? How are the rest of his subjects?

He is in year 1, which is the right year for his age. However, he is pretty much on the level with year 2 both for reading (Norwegian) and Maths. But, now he seems to have gone beyond where year 2 is at present.

It depends how they are teaching him really, they might be doing lots of extension work with him - I personally would be more concerned if all his maths work was coming from a workbook. Have you talked to the teacher to find out how they are stretching him?

I know that he is taught together with year 2 for maths. And the work book supplements topics covered.

Like now, they are doing measurements. Yesterday they had "outdoor school" (They have that every tuesday)- this means that they are not in the classroom but learn outdoors (whatever the weather) in a nature based way. They were doing "measuring from non-standard measuring devices", measuring how long the banana is in paperclips, how long the school building is by skipping rope (how many skipping ropes do you need along the side of the school) so it is very practical. And then they do supplementary work in the work book after.

Sorry, today they had outdoor school (as it is tuesday)

that sounds fab.
You probably need to speak to the teacher if you are concerned about him.
It depends on what you want out of it though? I was told at parent's evening a few weeks ago that ds1 (6 - yr 1) is conceptually at the end of yr 2 at least, but I know that he doesn't have alot of the knowledge to go with this. I want him to continue to learn the concepts, and hopefully to be extended as necessary. I am not overly worried at the moment as he is in a mixed yr1/2 class, so is working with the yr 2's. I will be more concerned next year and will be discussing it more with the teacher then, who in fact said at the parents evening that she was a bit concerned about what would happen with him next year.
Hopefully someone will come along who could give you an idea of what could happen, to give you reference points for when you talk to the teacher.

I think it also depends what your long-term plans are. are you staying in Norway for good? in which case aligning him with the Norweigan corriculum does make sense - (I for one have more faith in the Norweigan education system than ours) and you probably need to find a way of doing that, while keeping him interested. If you're there for a couple of years then not so sure - you need to make sure he can trasfer back smoothly.

but, ultimately, the main issue for me would be whether or not he's happy. kids who are happy in school, imho, will generally come out ok. I'm not a fan of "stretching" per se. only needed, imho, when not being stretched leads to boredom/disruptivness/unhappiness.

apologies for my awful spelling!

agree with the boredom/disruptivness/unhappiness comment, I was quite worried about ds1 last yr in reception - that he would get bored and disruptive. But he was happy playing lego so it didn't occur. Don't think that being there did alot for him though.

I had parents evening with his teacher recently (just after he had been given the year 2 maths book) and she was very pleased with his progress, and said he was very good at telling them what he did nt and what he did know/understand so they could tailor the teaching to him so he wasnt bored, but stretched.

We do some maths exercises at home, from books we have bought, and he seem to take concepts really quickly. And he likes to do additins, subtractions and multiplications for fun in the car, ie, I will say :what is 2 times 3 plus 17, or what is 79 minus 12 minus 20, or what is 82 plus 13 minus 8, etc. He likes that, he is replying quicker and quicker without counting on his fingers.

The initial reason to not move him straight up to year 2 (seing as he had done school in London) was that he was linguistically behind. But he has caught up now, and speaks and reads fluently. We are also keeping up his english, through reading, films and speaking english as well as norwegian at home.

It looks like we will be staying quite a while. He is very happy here, he loves that it is practical, he loves that he has much more freedom, he loves that he has good friends, and he says he doesnt want to go back.

sounds like there isn't really a problem then? Going back to your OP - do you need to do anything?
Lovely that he is happy there.

I dont know what is going to happen next, when he has finnished the book.

He is also in a year 1 year 2 mixed group, and i also worry what will happen next year when he will be year 2 and cant stretch himself "upwards".

I guess, what I am wondering is if I shall push for him to be moved up to year 3 together with year 2 next year, rather than stay behind in a year 1 year 2 mixed setting.

I know he is bright, but hardly a genious, he has just a head start. But he mostly play with the year 2 children anyway, so socially and academically I think he would benefit from being moved up.

But I dont want to seem "precious" and pushy with the teachers.

is moving up a possibility? It would be pretty difficult here.
Not sure what to say really, I would happily seem pushy and precious to get what I thought my child needed. You need to consider if it is what he needs?

Given what you say about his Norwegian and comprehension, I wouldn't encourage the idea of him moving up.

Maths is a peculiarly linear subject and children who find it easy often excel in the way you describe. I certainly did at primary school. I firmly believe that a considerable proportion of children (say 5-10%) could easily be taught to pass GCSE Maths by age 11 ... but what would be the point of that?

Bright children need teachers who will engage them at a deeper level, rather than being pushed through the standard curriculum at a faster pace.